I like the concentration, the crush; I like working with language, as others like working with clay, or notes.

People like definite decisions, / Tidy answers, all the little ravelings / Snipped off, the lint removed, they / Hop happily among their roughs / Calling what they can't clutch insanity / Or saintliness.

My last defense / Is the present tense.

One reason cats are happier than people is that they have no newspapers.

Exhaust the little moment / Soon it dies.

I think there are things for all of us to do as long as we're here and we're healthy.

When I start writing a poem, I don't think about models or about what anybody else in the world has done.